Studies on the mycotic inhabitants of Culex pipiens collected from fresh water ponds in Egypt

A total of 20 fungal species belonging to 10 genera were found to be associated with all stages of Culex pipiens. Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger and Penicillium chrysogenum were the dominant fungi. Beauveria alba and Phoma herbarum, a well known facultative pathogen, have been recorded. Most of fungal isolates (63.22%) showed a moderate growth on a synthetic medium containing partially purified chitin. The water extract of both Artmesia and Cleome droserifolia showed an inhibitive effect on the protein content and growth of some selected isolates. One ml dose of crude extract of A. fumigatus killed 90% of the larvae after 192 hr incubation but 36% of the test larvae were killed by the same dose extracted from P. chrysogenum at the same period of incubation.